Seeking Computer / Network Help for the Trailer

[Paul & Deb]

Okay, at home we have a wireless network. It consists of a high speed cable modem, Linksys S3000 router, Seagate Hard drive, our 2 laptops and a wireless all-in-one Epson printer. Everything works great, no problem.

I'm trying to figure out what to do for a network when we are on the road.

We take both laptops and we connect to the internet usually through my Verizon Mobile Hotspot on my 4g cell phone and that works great.

The only thing that I want to add for the road is a scanner/printer. A couple years ago I thought I would just bring our current printer along with us but I could never get it configured to work so I haven't tried since.

Since I won't have a hard wired modem with me are there routers that connect wirelessly to my mobile hotspot and then my devices connect wirelessly to it or what?

Or should I just purchase another printer that I would travel with and it would just connect to my laptop with an HDMI cable when I need it? Actually, maybe I just talked my self into the simplest solution but I'm interested in hearing what others have done.

Thanks

 

[dhaile]

You can get a HP Officejet 8610 printer new for less than $150. It has wireless capabilities. Just use the lcd screen on the printer with the wireless wizard and connect is to the same wireless network as your laptops. Or use a Ethernet cable and plug from your laptop ethernet to the printer directly. You will still have wireless internet on the laptop with networked printer. This will only allow one computer to print unless you share the printer on the network. Hope this helps.

 

[Paul & Deb]

So I don't need a router for the printer to connect to? It will just connect to my Verizon hotspot like the laptops do?

 

[Paul & Deb]

You can get a HP Officejet 8610 printer new for less than $150.

Amazon has this printer for only $118 but it looks a little big and bulky. Product Dimensions: 19.7 x 11.8 x 18.5 inches ; 26.2 pounds. Hmm, I like the idea I just need to find something smaller.

 

[TucsonJim]

Poppy,

I use an HP wireless printer though my wireless network. Here's what you need to do:

http://support.hp.com/gb-en/product...ies/5304881/model/5373124/document/c03278373/

 

[RamGunner]

One issue you might face is that your Verizon Hotspot might not allow the devices connected to the WiFi it provides to talk to each other. I'm not sure on the latest ones, but I know their older ones didn't create a true local LAN. Each device was routed to the Internet, but could not reach any of the other devices.

Here's how we are setup.

We have an Asus RT-AC66U router. It has 1 hardwired ethernet port for WAN (external Internet), 4 hardwired LAN ports, and a full WiFi system (with both primary and guest WiFi networks). It also has two USB ports - and one of them can take a USB device from a wireless carrier to use as a backup when the primary WAN is offline. The other can take any USB device and make it usable via the network - printers, hard drives etc.

All of our wireless and wired devices connect to this system. That never changes, so our internal LAN is always the same and is always available. We have a Canon MG5400 printer/scanner which connects to the primary wireless network and can be used by anything on our LAN.

In terms of external Internet - we have three modems that can connect to the WAN port on the router. One is a Motorola SB6141 DOCSIS 3 cable modem if we have cable Internet. Another is for ADSL if we have a DSL connection. The third is what you might be looking for.

It's a Netgear Trek N300 (Model PR2000). It has several functions, but the one we use is to bridge the hardwired WAN port of our router to ANY WiFi signal - this can be a WiFi from a hotspot, WiFi at a park, WiFi at a library - if we can connect to it, it will use it. When we arrive at a location with a public or secured WiFi where we have the password, I just plug the PR2000 into the WAN port of our router, and access it through the router. I enter the info for the WiFi and it connects. Then our external connectivity runs through it.

Even if we don't have external connectivity, we always have the same internal connectivity available, including for our printer/scanner.

There is also a function on the PR2000 that will let you plug your printer into it via Ethernet and create a WiFi network that your laptops can connect to and communicate with it. It could also bridge to your Internet hotspot. That would simplify the setup - and you could give the WiFi it creates the same name and settings as your home network so that everything would automatically connect.

I hope that's helpful.

 

[WhittleBurner]

We connect through our Verizon phones hotspots and have a cheap canon printer that I plug into the usb port of my laptop to print. No issues everything prints fine. It's pretty easy to set up on any lap top.
When that runs out of ink I'm thinking of getting one that has bluetooh and wireless capabilities so we can print from either the phones, tablets or lap top.

 

[Ditkitty]

We use a wireless printer. can print to it from either my iPad or Dave's laptop.

 

[LCBoyer]

Dave. I'm curious, what printer do you use

 

[LA5ver]

When we were full timing in a motorhome about a year ago, we used a D-Link DIR-505 Wireless router. It is just a wall wart the plugs into any 120 outlet and has wireless connections to all of the local devices. The upstream connection was to our Verizon hot spot on my Samsung S3. When we were at a RV Park with wireless service, we just reconfigured the DIR-505 to use the RV Park's wireless connection. We never had to reconfigure any of the laptops, printers, iPads or other tablet devices. Our printer was an HP Envoy multifunction that had a pretty small footprint. The setup was easy to reconfigure when we move from campground to campground.

 

[Ditkitty]

Dave. I'm curious, what printer do you use

We aren't near the rig right now, so not entirely sure. Most likely an Epson.....I'll check for sure next time we are out there.

 

[Paul & Deb]

Wow everyone, great options here. I am going to pick what I consider the easiest and go with it. We won't really need it until August when we leave on our 4 month journey but now I have choices. I LOVE choices ")

 

[SkiSmuggs]

Poppy, you might also take a look at the Pepwave Surf On-the-Go. It can create your own network from a USB cellular or the campground's wireless network. It has a decent external antenna that picks up weak signals. We connect the the campground with it, then connect all our devices to our router which always has a network called Pennys RV. That way we don't have to set up each device at each location, and it has an ethernet port for connecting a printer.

 

[SkiSmuggs]

I forgot to mention that you can get a 12volt cable for boondocking.